My stream of consciousness: orientation

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I’m walking to Kent Hall. I feel like a kid again. Who will I sit with at lunch? I should have worn my other black flats-my mom told me these were through. I hope they don’t make us wear nametags. I hope it’s pretty welcoming. I made my kids feel welcome on their first day at school right? Karma is real right? I walk in. Here we go. I find my name tag. How annoying. I sit down next to a girl named Lindsay. She just had a baby named Ava. No way! One of my friends named her baby Ava too. She couldn’t believe how young I looked. Tell me that at 50. Did I want to see pictures of her daughter? Of course I did. Wasn’t her daughter cute? Of course she was! Absolutely adorable. As if I could say anything else. She couldn’t believe I hadn’t sent in my shot records yet. Did I know that the delay could prevent me from registering? Yes I had read that. And I hadn’t picked up my student i.d.! Did I know I needed that to get into buildings? Yes, I had heard that. Gosh, she really is a mom. Then I met Stacey. I told her I went to Michigan. How could I have gone to suuuuch a big school? Big schools scared her. It’s a school not a snake. I walked around a little. I saw two girls from my program. Stick to the Robin from Georgia line. That was a good conversation starter in undergrad. Hi I’m Robin….from Georgia! What are your names? Talia from Israel and Jing Wei from Southern China? Shit the Georgia card is out. Chris comes up.What do you want to do with your degree? Ugh gross, I hate where this is going. He says he actually hates that question. What did you do last night? Thank you Chris. We talk about how I really want to see the Statue of Liberty .The dean comes on. Good afternoon! Good afternoon. Oh you can do better than that! Right on cue. That always makes me laugh. What if we gave it our all the first time? I listen to the dean’s speech. You came here with a sense of urgency, responsibility, and maturity. I think. All of you believe in the power of education. Mmmhmm. Just know we are here to help you. Can you help me find my shot records? While you’re here I urge you to advance your goals, advance the profession, and advance the greater good.I whisper to Jing Wei that we sound like the next group of X-Men. She just smiles. Tough crowd. When we break up into small groups we have to tell a fun fact about ourselves. Dammit.Why don’t I ever have something ready for this?Red is my favorite color-boring. I like shopping-I’ll sound like Elle Woods. I have a blog-nahh then I can’t write about them candidly. Shit it’s my turn. I taught for the past two years and now I’m a student so that’s funny. That was such a poor choice of words. I think I meant ironic? What does ironic even mean? I blame you Alanis Morrissette. That’s great Robin, I’m happy to have you.Then the professor introduces the next activity. We have ten minutes to remember twenty people’s names. I’m glad we’re wearing name tags.